PLAZA THEATRE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 257, 29 October 1937, Page 9

PLAZA THEATRE

“SLAVE SHIP.” A honeymoon couple sailing the closely-patrolled seas of the North Atlantic in the last of the slavers, the crew in revolt, the master of the ship lighting single-handed to rescue himself and his young wife from the hands of his one-time partners; this is the theme of “Slave Ship,” which, with Warner Baxter, Wallace Beery, Elizabeth Allan, and Mickey Rooney at the head of the cast, is to be seen to-day at the Plaza Theatre. Romance, brutality, the fair shapes of white-cancassed vessels on the blue sea bearing a freight of human misery and death, form the background of the picture. And against this background there is a larger struggle, the light of one man with his environment, his determination to mould his own destiny, and the remarkable adventure which finally opens to him the way of life of which he has dreamed. The captain has always been a slaver, from boyhood days when lie embarked on his career he has known nothing else. His crew is more than a crew, it is a band of partners in his business, and a risky business it is with the lleets of Britain and the United States linking hands :o sweep the last of the slavers from the seas. Those who remember Wallace Beery as the famous Long John Silver in “Treasure Island” have probably felt it inevitable that he should play another such role one day. And here he is, Long John again to the life, with his whining, his apparent nervousness, hi bland treachery and courage. Warner Baxter plays the forthright hero in his usual downright fashion, and the part of the clinging, pale, courageous wife is well handled by Elizabeth Allan. # The supports are of a very high standard.